SKETCH OF HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 115 



cies in the limestone rocks of the falls, and published anony- 

 mously in the paper some notices of its mineralogy. At the 

 month of the Cumberland River he exchanged the ark for a keel- 

 boat or barge, with which, propelled by poles pushing on the bot- 

 tom, he made from three to ten miles a day against the swift cur- 

 rent of the Mississippi to Herculaneum, Mo. On this voyage he 

 traveled over a large part of the west bank on foot, and gleaned 

 several facts in its mineralogy and geology which made it an 

 initial point in his future observations. He spent three months 

 in examining the lead mines, personally visiting every mine or 

 digging of consequence in the Missouri country and tracing its 

 geological relations into Arkansas. Hearing of syenite suitable 

 for millstones on the St. Francis, he visited that stream and dis- 

 covered the primitive tract ; and he pushed his examinations west 

 beyond the line of settlement into the Ozark Mountains. He now 

 determined to call the attention of the Government to the impor- 

 tance of its taking care of its domain in the mines, and with this 

 purpose packed his collections and took passage in the new 

 steamer St. Louis for New Orleans. Hence, having inquired into 

 the formation of the delta of the Mississippi, he sailed by brig for 

 New York. He opened his collections and invited examination 

 of them, published a book on the mines and physical geography 

 of the West and a letter on its resources, and went to Washing- 

 ton to present his views on the care of the mines to the officers of 

 the Government. While he was looking for a secretary within 

 whose purview the matter fell, Mr. Calhoun invited him to ac- 

 company General Cass, Governor of Michigan, as naturalist and 

 mineralogist on an expedition to explore the sources of the Mis- 

 sissippi and to inquire into the supposed value of the Lake Supe- 

 rior copper mines. He accepted the position, though the compen- 

 sation was small, because, he says, " it seemed to be the bottom 

 step of a ladder which I ought to climb." 



Mr. Schoolcraft left New York in March, 1820, reached Niag- 

 ara Falls on the 1st of May, and Detroit by steamer a week later. 

 While waiting for the completion of arrangements for embar- 

 kation, he attended to the correspondence which had been pro- 

 voked by the publication of his work on the mines and the re- 

 sultant awakening of interest in the varied resources of the 

 Mississippi Valley and the subject of geographical and geological 

 explorations. He determined to reply to all letters that appeared 

 to be honest inquiries for geographical facts, " which I only, and 

 not books, could communicate." The route of the expedition " lay 

 up the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers and around the southern 

 shores of Lakes Huron and Superior to Fond du Lac, thence up 

 the St. Louis River in its rugged passage through the Cabotian 

 Mountains to the Savannah summit which divides the Great Lakes 



